MIMO multi-relay networks with TAS/MRC and TAS/SC in Weibull fading channels

We examine transmit antenna selection with receiver maximal-ratio combining (TAS/MRC) and transmit antenna selection with receiver selection combining (TAS/SC) in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks. Amongst L two-hop relay links, a single relay offering the highest end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is activated. Assuming independent non-identically distributed Weibull fading between the hops, new closed-form asymptotic expressions for the outage probability and the symbol error rate are derived considering N_S, N_R, and N_D antennas at the source, the relays, and the destination, respectively. Based on such expressions, the diversity order and the array gain for M-ary phase shift keying and M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation are analyzed. We highlight that the diversity order of TAS/MRC is the same as TAS/SC. As such, we explicitly characterize the SNR gap between TAS/MRC and TAS/SC as the ratio of their respective array gains. An interesting observation is reached that for equal per-hop SNRs, the SNR gap between the two protocols is independent of L.